Hi! Thanks for the question.
Jesus carried the cross am estimated total deistance of 650 yards or
594.36 meters. The crossbar weighed between 80 to 110 pounds.
"From the beating, Jesus walked on a path, now known as the Via
Dolorosa or the "way of suffering", to be crucified at Golgotha. The
total distance has been estimated at 650 yards. (Edwards). A narrow
street of stone, it was probably surrounded by markets in Jesus' time.
He was led through the crowded streets carrying the crossbar of the
cross (called a patibulum) across His shoulders. The crossbar probably
weighed between 80 to 110 pounds."
"Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ"
http://www.new-life.net/crucify1.htm
"The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a
stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross.
Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of
shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to
Golgotha is finally completed."
"The Suffering and Death of Jesus Christ"
http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/deathchr2.html
Search terms used:
Jesus cross distance 650 yards
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answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
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Easterangel-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Hi again.
The crossbar means the horizontal bar wherein Jeuss' palms were nailed
to and not the whole cross. This seems to be the most accepted view by
the scholars that those crucified during that time carried the
crossbar and not the whole cross. But as you can see the crossbar
itself was heavy. Please read the following articles:
"Jesus nails - What do we know about the nails?"
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/jesus-nails-faq.htm
"The Crucifixion of Jesus"
http://www.carm.org/misc/crucifixion.htm
I hope this would be of help.
Thanks again.

The word found in the Bible relating to the instrument on which Jesus
was hung is "STAUROS". A close English equivalent is 'torture stake'.
TORTURE STAKE
An instrument such as that on which Jesus Christ met death by
impalement. (Mt 27:32-40; Mr 15:21-30; Lu 23:26; Joh 19:17-19, 25) In
classical Greek the word (stau·ros´) rendered ?torture stake? in the
New World Translation primarily denotes an upright stake, or pole, and
there is no evidence that the writers of the Christian Greek
Scriptures used it to designate a stake with a crossbeam.
The book The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons, states:
?There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings
forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even
indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of
Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that
it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed
together in the form of a cross. . . . it is not a little misleading
upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ?cross?
when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native
tongue, and to support that action by putting ?cross? in our lexicons
as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was
at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the
Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long
afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the
absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other
assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had
that particular shape.??London, 1896, pp. 23, 24.
Why Jesus Had to Die on a Stake. At the time Jehovah God gave his law
to the Israelites, they obligated themselves to abide by its terms.
(Ex 24:3) However, as descendants of sinner Adam, they were unable to
do so perfectly. For this reason they came under the curse of the Law.
To remove this special curse from them, Jesus had to be hanged on a
stake like an accursed criminal. Concerning this the apostle Paul
wrote: ?All those who depend upon works of law are under a curse; for
it is written: ?Cursed is every one that does not continue in all the
things written in the scroll of the Law in order to do them.? . . .
Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a
curse instead of us, because it is written: ?Accursed is every man
hanged upon a stake.???Ga 3:10-13.
Figurative Use. ?Torture stake? sometimes stands for the sufferings,
shame, or torture experienced because of being a follower of Jesus
Christ. As Jesus said: ?Whoever does not accept his torture stake and
follow after me is not worthy of me.? (Mt 10:38; 16:24; Mr 8:34; Lu
9:23; 14:27) The expression ?torture stake? is also used in such a way
as to represent Jesus? death upon the stake, which made possible
redemption from sin and reconciliation with God.?1Co 1:17, 18.
Jesus? death on the torture stake was the basis for removing the Law,
which had separated the Jews from the non-Jews. Therefore, by
accepting the reconciliation made possible by Jesus? death, both Jews
and non-Jews could become ?one body to God through the torture stake.?
(Eph 2:11-16; Col 1:20; 2:13, 14) This proved to be a stumbling block
for many Jews, since they insisted that circumcision and adherence to
the Mosaic Law were essential for gaining God?s approval. That is why
the apostle Paul wrote: ?Brothers, if I am still preaching
circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? Then, indeed, the
stumbling block of the torture stake has been abolished.? (Ga 5:11)
?All those who want to make a pleasing appearance in the flesh are the
ones that try to compel you to get circumcised, only that they may not
be persecuted for the torture stake of the Christ, Jesus. Never may it
occur that I should boast, except in the torture stake of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been impaled to me and I to
the world.? (Ga 6:12, 14) For confessing Jesus? death on the torture
stake as the sole basis for gaining salvation, Paul was persecuted by
the Jews. As a consequence of this confession, to the apostle the
world was as something impaled, condemned, or dead, whereas the world
viewed him with hatred, as a criminal impaled on a stake.
Persons who embraced Christianity but who afterward turned to an
immoral way of life proved themselves to be ?enemies of the torture
stake of the Christ.? (Php 3:18, 19) Their actions demonstrated that
they had no appreciation for the benefits resulting from Jesus? death
on the torture stake. They ?trampled upon the Son of God? and
?esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which they
were sanctified.??Heb 10:29.

It is well known that stauros originally meant stake or upright pole
but the Romans used more than one type of instrument for execution. It
is also well known that stauros is used primarily for stake in
classical Greek but the N.T. was written in Koine Greek. Those who use
argue for the classical Greek must also show if it was used to
describe crucifixions after 30 A.D. in Palestine. Many scholars
believe that by the first century the Romans employed the more well
known form of crucifixion.
"[Stauros] means properly a stake, and is the tr. [i.e., translation]
not merely of the Latin crux (cross), but of palus (stake) as well. As
used in NT, however, it refers evidently not to the simple stake used
for impaling, of which widespread punishment crucifixion was a
refinement, but to the more elaborate cross used by the Romans in the
time of Christ."
A Dictionary of Bible, Dealing With Its Language, Literature And
Contents, Including The Biblical Theology, 1898, Volume I, T. & T.
Clarke: Edinburgh, p. 528.
"The Greek word for cross, (stauros), properly signified a stake, an
upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or
which might be used in impaling (fencing in) a piece of ground. But a
modification was introduced as the dominion and usages of Rome
extended themselves through Greek-speaking countries. Even amongst the
Romans, the crux (from which the word cross is derived) appears to
have been originally an upright pole, and always remained the more
prominent part. But from the time that it began to be used as an
instrument of punishment, a traverse piece of wood was commonly added
... about the period of the Gospel Age, crucifixion was usually
accomplished by suspending the criminal on a cross piece of wood."
The Imperial Bible Dictionary", by P. Fairbairn, London, 1874, Vol 1 p225
There are several historical documents that show the Romans used a
cross for crucifixion in the first and second century.
"Consider our world and whether there would be any effective
administration or community if it were not for this form of the cross.
You can only cross the sea when you make use of a sail in the ship.
The earth is not plowed without it. This same shape of the cross is in
the tools that diggers and mechanics use to do their work. And the
human form differs from the animals in being erect with hands extended
and having on the face extending from the forehead what is called a
nose through which there is respiration for a living creature.
This too shows the form of cross."
Justin Martyr's First Apology, Chapter LV.-Symbols of the Cross.
"For the one beam is placed upright, from which the highest extremity
is raised up into a horn, [b]when the other beam is fitted on to
it[/b], and the ends appear on both sides as horns joined on to the
one horn."
Justin's "Dialogue With Trypho", Chap XC in ANF, p. 245
Justin Martyr lived from approximately 100 to 165 AD.
"And because the cross in the T was to have grace, He saith also three
hundred. So He revealeth Jesus in the two letters, and in the
remaining one the cross."
J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Harmer, Editors, The Apostolic Fathers, ?The
Epistle of Barnabas? (9:8b), pg. 278
"The Spirit saith to the heart of Moses, that he should make a type of
the cross and of Him that was to suffer, that unless, saith he, they
shall set their hope on Him, war shall be waged against them for ever.
Moses therefore pileth arms one upon another in the midst of the
encounter, and standing on higher ground than any he stretched out his
hands, and so Israel was again victorious."
Ibid., (12:2) pp. 280-281
"The very form of the cross, too, has five extremities, two in length,
two in bredth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests
who is fixed by the nails."
Irenaeus' "Against Heresies", Chap XXIV in ANF p. 395
In 197 AD Tertullian wrote:
"Every piece of timber which is fixed in the ground in an erect
position is a part of a cross, and indeed the greater portion of its
mass. But an entire cross is attributed to us, [b]with its transverse
beam[/b], of course, and its projecting seat." Tertullian in "Ad
Nationes" Chap XI in ANF, Vol III, p. 122
These writers lived in a period when crucifixions were still carried
out, and could see these executions firsthand. Both Justin and
Tertullian referred to cases where Christians were crucified (See ANF,
Vol I, p. 254; Vol III, p. 28).
In the first century B.C. Dionysius of Halicarnassus described the
practice of tying the patibulum across the victims back:
"A Roman citizen of no obscure station, having ordered one of his
slaves to be put to death, delivered him to his fellow-slaves to be
led away, and in order that his punishment might be witnessed by all,
directed them to drag him through the Forum and every other
conspicuous part of the city as they whipped him, and that he should
go ahead of the procession which the Romans were at that time
conducting in honour of the god. The men ordered to lead the slave to
his punishment, having stretched out both his arms and fastened them
to a piece of wood which extended across his breast and shoulders as
far as his wrists, followed him, tearing his naked body with whips."
(Roman Antiquities, 7.69.1-2)
Seneca lived from 4 B.C. - A.D. 65, was a Roman and wrote the following:
Cum refigere se crucibus conentur, in quas unusquisque vestrum clavos
suos ipse adigit, ad supplicium tamen acti stipitibus singulis
pendent; hi, qui in se ipsi animum advertunt, quot cupiditatibus tot
crucibus distrahuntur. At maledici et in alienam contumeliam venusti
sunt. Crederem illis hoc vacare, nisi quidam ex patibulo suo
spectatores conspuerent! "Though they strive to release themselves
from their crosses---those crosses to which each one of you nails
himself with his own hand--yet they, when brought to punishment hang
each one on a single stipes; but these others who bring upon
themselves their own punishment are stretched upon as many crosses as
they had desires. Yet they are slanderous and witty in heaping insult
on others. I might believe that they were free to do so, did not some
of them spit upon spectators from their own patibulum!" (De Vita
Beata, 19.3).
....alium in cruce membra distendere.... "another to have his limbs
stretched upon the crux" (De Ira, 1.2.2).
Video istic cruces non unius quidem generis sed aliter ab aliis
fabricatas: capite quidam conversos in terram suspendere, alii per
obscena stipitem egerunt, alii brachia patibulo explicuerunt. "Yonder
I see crosses, not indeed of a single kind, but differently contrived
by different peoples; some hang their victims with head toward the
ground, some impale their private parts, others stretch out their arms
on a patibulum" (De Consolatione, 20.3).
Contempissimum putarem, si vivere vellet usque ad crucem....Est tanti
vulnus suum premere et patibulo pendere districtum.... Invenitur, qui
velit adactus ad illud infelix lignum, iam debilis, iam pravus et in
foedum scapularum ac pectoris tuber elisus, cui multae moriendi causae
etiam citra crucem fuerant, trahere animam tot tormenta tracturam? "I
should deem him most despicable had he wished to live up to the very
time of crucifixion....Is it worth while to weigh down upon one's own
wound, and hang impaled upon a patibulum?....Can any man be found
willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already
deformed, swelling with ugly tumours on chest and shoulders, and draw
the breath of life amid long drawn-out agony? I think he would have
many excuses for dying even before mounting the crux!" (Epistle,
101.10-14).
Cogita hoc loco carcerem et cruces et eculeos et uncum et adactum per
medium hominem, qui per os emergeret, stipitem. "Picture to yourself
under this head the prison, the crux, the rack, the hook, and the
stake which they drive straight through a man until it protrudes from
his throat" (Epistle, 14.5).
....sive extendendae per patibulum manus "....or his hands to be
extended on a patibulum" (Fragmenta, 124; cf. Lactantius, Divinis
Institutionibus, 6.17).
There is also testimony about the form of the cross by early
non-Christian writers. The Greek writer Lukianos (c. 120-180 AD) wrote
that the letter T had received its "evil meaning" because of the "evil
instrument tyrants put up to hang people upon them. (Lukianos in
"Iudicium Vocalium 12", in Crucifixion by Martin Hengel, Fortress
Press, 1982, pp. 8,9)
Artemidorus lived in the 2nd century AD during the reigns of Hadrian
and the Antonines. In his five-volume work Oneirocritica (The
Interpretation of Dreams) he also compares the stauros to a ship:
"Being crucified is auspicious for all seafarers. For the stauros,
like a ship, is made of wood and nails, and the ship's mast resembles
a stauros."
Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 2:53
We have evidence from the early Bible manuscripts themselves. The
manuscripts P66 and P75 are traditionally dated around AD 200, but may
be from as early as the last part of the first century. (See BIBLICA ,
Vol. 69:2, 1988; which dates the much related P46 this early, and
preliminary information from Professor George Howard by letter stated
P75 and P66 are "not far behind" in date.)
In P75 the word "stauros" is changed so the T and R together depict a
cross with a person on in three places where it occurs, and P66 put a
cross into the word "stauros."
In the 1940's Dr. Hermann Modder of Cologne, Germany carried out
scientific tests to determine the cause of Christ's death. The results
were recorded in the Bible as History by Werner Keller:
"In the case of a person suspended by his two hands the blood sinks
very quickly into the lower half of the body. After six to twelve
minutes blood pressure has dropped by 50% and the pulse rate has
doubled. Too little blood reaches the heart, and fainting ensues. This
leads to a speedy orthostatic collapse through insufficient blood
circulating to the brain and the heart. Death by crucifixion is
therefore [also] due to heart failure.
It is a well authenticated fact that victims of crucifixion did not
usually die for two days or even longer. On the vertical beam there
was often a small support attached called a "sedile" (seat) or a
"cornu" (horn). If the victim hanging there eased his misery from time
to time by supporting himself on this, the blood returned to the upper
half of his body and the faintness passed. When the torture of the
crucified man was finally to be brought to an end, the "crurifragium"
was proceeded with: his legs were broken below the knee with blows
from a club. That meant that he could no longer ease his weight on the
footrests and heart failure quickly followed."
The Bible as History, by Werner Keller. Pages 348-349
Then there's Matthew 27:37 - Above his head they placed the written
charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. (NIV)
If Jesus had been crucified on a stake the natural way to state this
would have been "Above his hands they placed the written charge..."

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